“Why just mostly?”
She waved her hand. “I have a . . . landlord who drops by sometimes. But I can handle him.”
I knew that she really meant her pimp, but I didn’t say anything.
Coral bumped her skinny leg into the rickety coffee table, rattling several open, empty pill bottles sitting there and causing a bit of white powder to puff up from the wooden surface. She saw me staring at the bottles, and she stepped toward me, her eyes narrowing, her lips twisting into an angry snarl, her hands clenching into fists. It almost seemed like she thought I was going to try to steal something off the table, even though it was just junk.
“What’s with all the bottles?” I asked, trying not to shrink away in fear. “Have you been sick?”
“Yeah. Something like that.” She stepped back, her face smoothed out, and her fists loosened. “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you.”
Coral circled around me. I tried not to fidget as her hazel eyes swept over my body from head to toe.
“You’re in pretty good shape, all things considered.” She wrinkled her nose. “Well, except for how you smell. So what do you want first, kid? Food or a hot shower?”
The choice was easy. “Food.”
“Smart girl.”
She went over to the fridge, pulled open the door, and drew out a white paper bag. The top of the bag had been rolled down, but a pink figure was printed on the side. I squinted. Was that a . . . pig?
“You like barbecue?” Coral asked. “It’s day-old leftovers, but they warm up good.”
My stomach rumbled again, answering her.
Coral unwrapped half of a barbecued beef sandwich, slapped it on a paper plate, and shoved the whole thing into a microwave that perched precariously on top of the fridge. A minute later, she set the sandwich in front of me at the table.
“Enjoy.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. I picked up the sandwich and started taking big bites out of it, chewing and swallowing as fast as I could, just in case she changed her mind and tried to take it away from me. The sandwich was hot, too hot to eat, really, but the sweet-and-spicy sauce and the smoky flavor of the meat were so good that I didn’t care that it burned my tongue. I ate that sandwich, then used my fingers to scoop up the stray bits of meat and sauce that had fallen onto the paper plate and sucked them up too.
When I was done, I looked at Coral, a silent question in my eyes.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ve got another sandwich you can eat—later. First, let’s get you cleaned up.”
I made a noise of protest, wanting the food right now, since I was still so hungry, but Coral grabbed my hand and pulled me into the bedroom. She opened the closet and started rifling through the clothes inside.
“Here,” she said. “You can put these on when you get done.”
She held up a tank top and a pair of short-shorts, both in black satin. I didn’t want to wear the clothes, since I would freeze in them, but they were clean, and she’d been so nice to me so far, so I just nodded and took them from her.
Coral jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “The bathroom’s right there. Try not to use up all the hot water, okay?”
“Thank you,” I whispered, clutching the skimpy clothes to my chest. “For everything.”
Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them back. Coral frowned, and a shadow passed over her face, but the dark expression quickly melted into her usual sunny smile.
“No problem, kid.”
She winked at me again, then stepped back out into the main room, pulling the door to the bedroom closed behind her.
I went into the bathroom, stripped off my filthy clothes, and got into the shower. I moaned at how good the hot water felt cascading over my skin, and I used up the better part of a bar of soap scrubbing myself from head to toe, along with half a bottle of shampoo washing my nasty rat’s nest of hair.
By the time I finished, I felt more like myself than I had in, well, since the night my family was murdered. Sure, this apartment wasn’t much, not nearly as fancy as my bedroom had been, but the thought of leaving it behind and going back out onto the streets filled me with dread. Maybe Coral would be nice enough to let me stay with her for a few days. I could help her. Cook and clean and do whatever she wanted me to.
I’d do just about anything to keep from being cold and hungry and tired and scared again.
I wrapped a towel around my body and grabbed the black satin tank top and short-shorts from where I’d put them on the closed toilet lid. But instead of pulling them on, I hesitated. Maybe Coral would let me stay if I didn’t use so many of her things, including her clothes. It couldn’t hurt to ask, right?
So I turned the water in the shower back on, then stopped up the tub so I could wash my clothes in it, before leaving the bathroom and going back into the bedroom. The door had swung open a crack, letting me see out into the main part of the apartment. Coral was pacing back and forth in front of the couch, holding a phone up to her ear. I stayed in the bedroom, not wanting to disturb her.
“Yeah, tell Reggie that I’ve got a live one for him,” she said. “A new girl. I haven’t seen her around before, but she can’t be more than thirteen, fourteen tops. She doesn’t seem like she’s been working, so we are talking fresh, new territory here. Know what I mean?”
She laughed, but her cheerful chuckle froze me to the bone. My breath stuck in my throat in surprise, and my damp fingers dug into the slick fabric in my hands.
“So how much will he give me for her?” Coral said, her voice as hard and brittle as her face. “I want some pills too. Double what he gave me for the last girl. Enough to last me at least a month this time.”
Fear spiked through me, sweeping away the lingering warmth of the shower. She was . . . she wanted to . . . she was going to sell me to her pimp.
The person on the other end said something, and Coral smiled.
“Good. She’s taking a shower right now, so tell him to come get her while she’s clean.” She paused, listening to the other person again. “He can be here in five minutes? Perfect. I’ll be waiting.”
I gasped. Her pimp was already on his way, and if he found me here, he’d beat me and rape me and then drug me up and make me work for him.
I had to get out of here—now.
I rushed back into the bathroom and started pulling on my clothes as fast as I could with my trembling hands. It was hard shoving the dirty layers of cloth on over my damp skin, but I managed it.
I didn’t want to think about what would happen if I didn’t.
I left the water in the bathroom running so Coral would think that I was still in the shower. I couldn’t go out through the front of the apartment, not with her waiting for me out there, so I stepped around the bed and hurried over to the window.
Cardboard held up with duct tape covered the space, but I tore at the tape with my fingernails, ripping it and the heavy sheet of paper away from the frame and throwing them down. I stuck my head out through the open space, my heart lifting at the sight of the rusty fire escape clinging to the side of the building.